Secret's Out: J.J. Abrams' Super 8 Is Every Bit as Great as You Hoped It Would Be
Coach JewelrySomething some thing is terrifying the good folks of Lillian, Ohio, but what is it? A gas-station attendant, his face blanched with fear, sees it and screams; all we see is his body being jerked out of the frame. A telephone lineman on his crane hears it as a clattering clank of metal, like a clumsy heist at Home Depot; soon he's gone. But the creepiest hint that a nasty creature lurks in Lillian comes when 12-year-old Joe (Joel Courtney) posts a notice about his lost dog on a public bulletin board and the camera pulls back to reveal a hundred posters of missing pets. Who, or what, took the dogs out? J.J. Abrams, writer and director of the scary, artful new thriller Super 8, is a hoarder of secrets, a master in the fine art of withholding information. Fans of Lost, the TV series he co-created, had to stick around six years for its mysteries to be revealed. "J.J. makes the audience wait for it," says Steven Spielberg, a producer and abettor of Super 8. With a conjurer's practiced blandness, Abrams simply says, "I believe in anything that will engage the audience and make the story more effective." But the man is no sadist.replica coach handbags He, more than anyone, loves not knowing what comes next. As a boy, he bought a mystery box at a Manhattan magic store; now 44, he still has the box and still hasn't opened it. (See Super 8 in TIME's Summer Entertainment Preview 2011.) What's Inside the Boxcar? The mystery box in Super 8 is a boxcar on a freight train speeding through Lillian one night in 1979 as some kids are furtively shooting a Super-8 movie. Pudgy Charles (Riley Griffiths) is the director, with the quick mind, bossiness and vast reserves of movie lore that mark a budding auteur. Cary (Ryan Lee) puts his pyrotechnic and possibly pyromaniacal skills to use as special-effects wizard. hermes birkin handbagsJoe does makeup and constructs the models that Charles' action film will crash. But like any nebbishy guys, these kids are making movies to attract the ladies specifically their leading lady, Alice (Elle Fanning), a 14-year-old blonde with an imperious star quality. As Joe powders her face for the shoot, he gazes at her with naked adoration, perspiration forming on his brow like evening dew. In the middle of their big take, the train crashes into a car on the tracks, spraying tons of debris their way and sending a platoon of military men fanning out across the scene. Only Joe has noticed that the car was driven onto the tracks, seemingly in a suicide mission. In the car is the boys' science teacher (Glynn Turman), injured and near death.cheap nike shoes store "They will kill you," he mutters. "Do not speak of this or else you and your parents will die." Do not speak of what? Of the thing that none of the kids saw the some thing that has escaped. In the other movies Abrams directed, the third Mission: Impossible and the retooled Star Trek, he ornamented familiar mythologies. Super 8, his first feature as writer-director, required that he build his own box and open it. "Withholding things in a story is no good if you aren't building to something substantial," he says. "It becomes foreplay without the main event, and no one wants that." Abrams adepts will recall a similar story, of young people banding together to face a ravenous monster, from Cloverfield, the 2008 alien-invasion film he produced. But Super 8 has a gentler vibe: it leavens the apocalyptic threat with the budding bonding of Joe and Alice. Joe's beloved mother has recently died in a steel-mill accident.Coach Luggage Bags His father (Kyle Chandler, from Friday Night Lights), Lillian's deputy sheriff, has his hands full trying to save the town. The lonely 12-year-old, clinging to his mother's necklace as a talisman, is aching for the sympathetic company of an older woman even two years older.
Coach SunglassesAt first glance, it might seem that Yemen -- like Somalia -- is a place we should best forget about. It has few proven natural resources, its hinterland is largely barren and inaccessible, and it has a long history of being virtually impossible to govern. But first impressions can be misleading, and if Yemen were to sink into a state of anarchy the implications for the Gulf region and beyond would be profound. Location, location, location When I first visited Yemen in 1987, President Ali Abdullah Saleh (yes, he had already been in power for nearly a decade) was cleverly playing one foreign suitor against another. The Chinese were building roads, the United States had a variety of aid schemes (and Hunt Oil of Texas was exploring for hydrocarbons), and the Russians were selling weapons.Coach Sunglasses Yemen was an important place to be in the global chess game. Yemen's oil potential has turned out (so far) to be less exciting than was once thought, but its strategic location still matters. To the north and west it has a long porous border with Saudi Arabia, which is very concerned that instability in Yemen -- and the growing al Qaeda presence there -- could spill over. Saudi Arabia has begun a multibillion-dollar project to make its 1,100-mile border with Yemen more secure, including fences and barbed wire in areas most vulnerable. Since 9/11 the Saudis have invested heavily in stamping out the threat at home from al Qaeda, and the last thing they want is contagion seeping in from next door.hermes birkin The same applies to Oman, Yemen's other neighbor in the south. Saudi Arabia has also been concerned by what it sees as Iranian meddling in Yemen in support of the rebellion by the Houthis (a Shiite minority in the north). Already apprehensive about unrest among their own Shiite minority, the Saudis last year used air power to help the Saleh government subdue the Houthi rebellion. Iran has denied that it has helped the Houthis, but criticized the Saudi intervention. Sea ports The city of Aden in southern Yemen has long been an important port at the crossroads of some of the world's busiest sea lanes. It was built up as a coal station for British merchant ships traveling to India, and its large natural harbor should make it a regional hub. But a lack of investment and political instability has hampered its development. Nike outletThe Gulf of Aden, off Yemen's coast, sees huge tonnage in merchant shipping: every day some 3 million barrels of oil pass through these waters. To the north is the Suez Canal and refineries at the Saudi port of Yanbu; to the south are the Indian Ocean and shipping lanes to energy-hungry Asian markets. These are the sea lanes already prowled by Somali pirates, and the Yemeni coast guard has been part of an international operation to protect shipping. More instability in Yemen, and the possibility that pirates could begin to use its long and sparsely populated coastline, could make shipping in the region even more vulnerable. Yemen also overlooks a maritime "choke-point" -- a narrow passage like the Strait of Hormuz at the tip of the Persian Gulf. At its narrowest, the Bab el Mandeb strait is just 12 miles wide -- Yemen on one side and Djibouti on the other. Coach New Arrivals Little wonder Djibouti has become an important outpost for the U.S. and French military.
Coach JewelryThe slopes of the Rockies beckoned for spring skiing. The airfare seemed reasonable enough on short notice: New York City to Denver for $386 round-trip. But United wasn't finished trying to pry money out of me. At the self-service check-in kiosk, I was offered a chance to upgrade to Economy Plus for $40. Did I have bags to check? The first was $25, the second $45. Did I want to shortcut the security line and board early with the swells, or hope there'd be room in the overhead bins when I got to them? Call it a dehassling fee: $29. The extras, all told, could have added as much as 50% to the ticket price. (See 20 reasons to hate airlines.) Welcome to the unbundled skies. Unbundling is the practice of separating as many cost components as possible in the case of air travel, baggage, boarding, meals, miles, wi-fi and selling them apart from the basic fare. coach handbags outletAirlines are reeling from high fuel costs, so they are taking unbundling to new altitudes. Travel consultant Jay Sorensen, president of IdeaWorks, has identified 35 add- ons, from standard charges such as baggage and food fees to more exotic options like flight-delay insurance or how about a fee to keep the middle seat next to you empty? A la carte pricing gives the airlines shelter from fierce fare wars. Thanks to Expedia, Kayak and other websites, you can discover the cost of flying from Dallas to Boston on most airlines. So nonrefundable coach fares have been driven down to the point that the airlines figure out what they have to charge to get a plane 75% filled past the break-even point. hermes birkinThat allows the airlines to shift capacity risk to you meaning that if you don't show, it's your loss, not theirs, says consultant Olivier Fainsilber of Oliver Wyman. There's not much profit in it, though. The airlines do earn money selling "optionality," mostly to business travelers who pay a premium for refundable fares or the option of changing or canceling flights. (See how much a "free" rewards flight really costs.) Unbundled services, on the other hand, can be far more profitable than selling seats: the prices aren't posted on websites, for one thing. The profit margins on ancillary revenues are as high as 80%. That's why the carriers are going to take unbundling as far as they can. The industry's revenue from add-ons grew to $21.46 billion last year, up 96% in two years. nike dunk shoesUnited's ancillary revenues are up 150% since 2007. American's were nearly $2.2 billion in 2009, says Sorensen, about 9% of total revenue. The majors see plenty of room for growth given what some of the minors are doing: Allegiant Air grabs 29% of its revenue from extras. Airlines once flew two- or three-cabin aircraft that had clear distinctions in price and service. Now there's business class and what has essentially become a variable class of service for every seat in coach. Many travelers appreciate options like more legroom. But the lack of consistency among airlines as to what they will charge extra for will be a source of frustration as unbundling plays out. (There's no baggage fee on Southwest; there is an early-boarding fee.) The U.S. Department of Transportation is proposing a new rule that would make fees more transparent. Coach Accessories And when it comes to airlines, "people are generally in a bad mood anyway," says Sorensen, who is one of them. In the unbundled world, airfare is merely the price of admission to get on a jet. If you crave comfort, convenience, less stress, decent food what was once called good service expect to pay up. That's not exactly friendly, but if you want a friend, goes the saying, buy a dog. Buy the dog, says the unbundled airline industry, and it'll cost an extra $125 to bring it on board.
Coach SunglassesWhen Philip Tarr heard the first reports of a massive outbreak of E. coli in Europe recently, they had a sickeningly familiar ring. Tarr, a microbiologist at Washington University, is an expert on the strains of E. coli that have periodically wreaked havoc in the United States. In 2006, for example, E. coli on contaminated spinach infected 199 people in the United States, causing kidney failure in a number of cases. The European outbreak seemed to fit the pattern: people were infected with E. coli apparently after eating contaminated vegetables. But then Tarr got a rude shock.coach outlet German hospitals sent samples of the E. coli to the Beijing Genome Center to have their DNA sequenced. On June 2, the Chinese researchers reported that the strain was not the same E. coli that contaminated the spinach, known as O157:H7. In fact, it was an entirely different strain, called O104:H4, that had never been associated with epidemics before. Tarr searched the medical literature for reports of the European strain. He could find only a handful of people who had carried it, and none of them got sick. But somehow this obscure microbe had turned vicious, triggering one of the biggestif not the biggestE. coli epidemics in history, with at least 1,730 infections and 18 deaths (at time of writing). We didnt know this bug was out there, says Tarr. This outbreak is taking us all by surprise. The fact that someone like Tarr has been taken by surprise should be of concern to everyone. The new epidemic raises grave questions about how prepared the United States and other countries are for a similar outbreak. hermes birkinWhat makes these outbreaks particularly confusing is that E. coli is, for the most part, a harmless creature. We are each home to billions of harmless E. coli that dwell in our gut. They live peacefully in every other mammal, too. E. coli is so harmless, in fact, that microbiologists began to rear E. coli in laboratory flasks a century ago, and it became the best-studied species on earth. But in the mid-1900s, scientists began uncovering strains of E.Nike outlet coli that could cause life-threatening diarrhea. Unlike ordinary E. coli, they carried genes for a poison known as Shiga toxin, named for Japanese bacteriologist Kiyoshi Shiga. Over time, microbiologists identified a number of strains of disease-causing bacteria, classifying them by the proteins on their surface. In 1982, E. coli O157:H7 burst on the scene with particularly grisly flair. It struck 25 people in Medford, Ore., and then three months later the same strain caused an outbreak in Traverse City, Mich. Scientists were able to trace the bacteria back to undercooked hamburgers. Since then, scientists have found a half dozen other strains that cause similar illnesses, but E. coli O157:H7 has been responsible for the lions share of E. coli food poisoning. It struck again in 1993 in contaminated hamburgers in Washington state, for example, sickening 732 people and killing four of them. But it has not used just hamburger to infect its victims.Coach Scarves Along with the spinach outbreak of 2006, E. coli O157:H7 has turned up in lettuce, bean sprouts, and even cookie dough.
More Pain for Spain: The Cucumber Crisis' Bad Timing
Coach OutletAnytime a bunch of politicians go on television to eat cucumbers, you know something is up. On Monday, there was Clara Aguilera, agriculture councilwoman for the region of Andalucia, pointedly biting into a whole cuke. A day later it was the turn of Mariano Rajoy, head of Spain's opposition Popular Party, and Esperanza Aguirre, president Why Do Christian Groups in China Put Authorities on Red Alert? coach factory outletEvery Sunday at 8:30 a.m. sharp, you see them coming to the unwelcoming square in the middle of the university neighborhood in Beijing. Skinny young girls dressed in jeans and wearing ponytails, elegant couples in their 40s, distinguished men that look like retired teachers: they all gather here with a funny mix of hesitation and bravery on their faces. Minutes later, the anti-riot police intervene and arrest them without encountering any resistance. On the bus that takes them to the police station, they open their prayer book and start singing liturgical songs. The people who so bravely defy the formidable security forces every week belong to the Protestant Shouwang church, the biggest and best known "house" church in Beijing. Shouwang means "to keep watch" in Mandarin. Discount Coach Handbags Notoriously independent, they refuse to let themselves be absorbed by the official "patriotic" church, which sits entirely in the government's fold. This autonomous group of worshippers holds their services at one of their member's homes, or in a simple conference room rented especially for the occasion. (See pictures of the making of modern China.) The devotees elect their ministers the members of the small "elders" committee charged with governing the church and they are deeply dedicated to the life of their community. "We have absolutely no political agenda, and we are not opposed to the government," a Shouwang official who is now under house arrest recently said. "We only want one thing: to freely practice our religion." So why are the Chinese authorities so dead set against the church? Several dozen Shouwang devotees are detained every week. Since the beginning of the civil disobedience movement, more than 300 of them have been questioned by police and pressured into signing a disavowal of their spiritual guide before being eventually freed. cheap hermes birkinSix Shouwang members have nevertheless been assigned to house arrest in recent months, with rumors circulating that they'll soon be thrown in jail. According to Bob Fu from China Aid, an American NGO which focuses on the life of China's Christians, Beijing has always had a very bad opinion of organized groups, whatever they might be. (See pictures of China at 60.) Founded in 1993 by the charismatic minister Jin Tianming, who was then a young chemical engineering graduate of the prestigious Tsinghua University, the number of Shouwang devotees has grown from 10 to 1,000 over the past 15 years. This has attracted the ire of the authorities, who have constantly harassed them and even forced them to change headquarters more than 20 times. "Two recent events explain the government's attitude," says Bob Fu. cheap nike shoes store"First, there was the fact that in 2010 Shouwang was preparing to send 200 delegates from around the country to the international evangelical conference in South Africa." Alarmed by their capacity to coordinate and their desire to present themselves as the legitimate representatives of Chinese Protestantism, the government banned the delegates from leaving the country. "And then the 'jasmine revolutions' started. Fearing [the Arab world's revolutionary spirit] would spread, Beijing decided to break Shouwang down," says Fu. In 2010, Shouwang worshippers managed to gather $6 million in donations. The money would have bought them an entire floor of a building in the university neighborhood. But the sale was cancelled under pressure from authorities. The church had to settle instead for a big conference room, rented from a posh restaurant. Coach SneakersSeveral months later, that contract was cancelled as well, for the same reasons, leaving the devotees without any roof over their heads. (See TIME's photo-essay "A New Look at Old Shanghai.") of the regional government of Madrid to do the same with a mercifully sliced version. These days, the local media is full of images of politicians stuffing their faces with elongated green vegetables. It's a sign of just how desperate the situation for Spain has become in the wake of Germany's E. coli outbreak, as well as how tense trade relations between the two nations and elsewhere have become. One week after it began, the so-called "cucumber crisis" shows no signs of abating. Already 17 people have died and 1,500 have fallen ill, including a handful of victims in Sweden, Spain, the Czech Republic, and the U.K. (all of whom appeared to have recently traveled to Germany). The World Health Organization today announced that the strain of E. Coach Handbagscoli involved is a never-before-seen mutation, while the European Commission has lifted its warning against Spanish vegetables, noting that the origins of the outbreak remain undetermined. (See the Top 10 Most Dangerous Foods.) But that clarification came only after German officials prematurely attributed the problem to cucumbers imported from two Andalusian farms. Although the vegetables in question did test positive for the bacteria, they proved to contain a different strain of E. coli than the deadly enterohaemorrhagic one at the root of this outbreak. In the meantime, grocery chains throughout Europe have suspended their orders, and Russia went so far as to ban all produce imports from Spain and Germany. hermes birkin handbagsOn June 2, it went further, blocking all imports from the entire European Union. The financial cost to Spanish agriculture, which exports roughly 9% of its produce to Germany has been enormous, with the government estimating losses of 200 million euros in the first week of the crisis. Costa de Almería is one of the agricultural collectives that was originally accused of contamination. Even with its name cleared, however, the company is not seeing sales pick up. The collective has already dismissed most of its 250-person crew, and has lost an estimated 500,000 euros in revenue, after it was forced to throw out much of its cucumber harvest. And the damage is hardly over. "We have 550,000 kilos of cucumbers that we can keep in storage for three days," says Pelegrín García, Costa de Almería's director of financial administration. "After that, we'll be destroying them as well." Nor is it just the cucumber farmers who are affected. Nike outletJuan Antonio Baños, president of the agricultural cooperative Ejidomar, laughed bitterly when questioned if his company, which grows only melons and zucchini, was also suffering. "Are you kidding?" he asked. "Prices are in the dirt. Before this we were getting .45 a kilo for melons, and now it's .18 or .20." His company too has had to let some of their workers go and this in a region that already has the highest unemployment rates (27%) in Spain. (See the Top 10 Terrible Epidemics.) Both men blame German imprudence for their losses. "It's not just that they accused us without evidence," says García. "They also leaked these accusations to the media rather than going the proper channels. I found out about the problem when I showed up to work last Thursday, and there was a battery of television cameras waiting." The false accusation, coupled with what he called the "slowness" of the European Commission's response, prompted Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to announce today that he would demand "sufficient reparations" from the European Union. Coach ShoesHis agriculture minister, Rosa Aguilar, had already gone further, noting at a June 1 meeting of European agriculture ministers that, "We reserve the right to hold Germany to account in this affair, and consequently we also ask for Germany to contribute financially to compensate the damage caused to Spanish production." The two cooperatives originally cited as sources of the infection are also considering legal action against Germany, for both financial and moral damages.
Yemen's Growing Chaos: When a Dictator Loses His Grip
Coach OutletResidents of Yemen's capital Sana'a awoke on Tuesday to a dawn chorus of bird song and machine- gun fire. An uneasy truce between rebel tribesmen and loyalist troops had prevailed over the weekend. But now the two sides were back at it, launching shells at each other as windows rattled across the city and plumes of dark smoke rose into the crystal blue sky. Despite four months of mass protests and defections from within his army, party and tribe, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has remained defiantly in place, seing off one effort to oust him after the next, while all the time maintaining that he is the pole who holds up the tent. Shortly after snubbing a third attempt at mediation by Gulf Arab neighbours last Sunday, Saleh sent his forces to take on the leaders of Yemen's most powerful tribal organization, the Hashed, the leaders of which have been bankrolling the opposition and supporting the upkeep of hundreds of thousands of protesters camping out on the capital's streets. (See pictures of clashes in Yemen.) It was a dangerous fight to pick. The week's worth of gun battles between the rebel tribesmen and Saleh's troops has already claimed the lives of 150 people; and the confrontations are briskly fanning the fears of civil war. Luxury Coach OutletThe two sides, now separated only by a few residential blocks, are firing anti-aircraft missiles at each other as they scramble for control of government buildings and the airport, their battle slowly encroaching the center of the city. Life in the capital is growing fierce and desperate. Sana'a's eastern suburb of Hasaba the crux of the clashes so far is now a ghost-town where Kalashnikov-wielding tribesmen in camouflage stalk streets empty of all humanity except for a few dazed looking old men sitting in the dust oblivious to the bullets and rockets flying around them. (See more about Yemen's death spiral.) The violence in Hasaba has spread panic throughout the city.hermes birkin Long lines of cars and buses with bags strapped to the roofs filtered their way out of the city on Tuesday. Many of those staying put are hoarding, withdrawing their savings from banks, filling buckets with petrol and barricading themselves indoors. "No safety, no electricity, no water, no phone network, and people with no jobs, the situation is very bad these days," says Ahmed Zaid, a man from old Sana'a who scratches a living by ferrying people to Tagheer Square, the epicenter of the protests, on his battered Suzuki motorbike. "I myself I'm terrified for my family, we're leaving tomorrow, inshallah," he says in broken English and using the Arabic for "God willing." The rebel tribesmen are holed up in a bullet-pocked gothic-style mansion belonging to Sadeq al-Ahmar, the grizzly-bearded leader of the Hashed, Yemen's largest and most powerful tribal federation. Sadeq's men are gradually fanning out and now have control of several government buildings including the ministry of trade and interior. Nike outlet"This started as self-defense but now we're fighting for his downfall," says Sheikh Mohammed al-Farasi, a scrawny man with bloodshot eyes guarding the entrance to Ahmar's crumbling garrison which is stocked with ammunition and supplies."There's no bigger shame for a tribal leader than having his house attacked. The only way this can end is if Saleh goes, the Hashed have spoken: enough is enough," he says loading his AK-47 with cartridges. (See scenes from Yemen.) On Wednesday, the jostling for buildings continued. Special Police Units recaptured the Ministry of Local Affairs from the Ahmar clan, while the latter took Hasaba's police station. At least 37 people died in the clashes on Tuesday night bringing the overall death toll from this latest round of fighting to over 200. Sadeq, one of the wealthiest and most outspoken figures on the Yemeni tribal landscape, had been allied with Saleh until March when he announced his support for the "peaceful youth movement".Coach New Arrivals Now he's being looked on as the power that might unsettle Saleh from his perch. Sadeq's brother Hamid, a business tycoon and founder of the opposition party Islah, has positioned himself as a potential successor to Saleh and accuses the president of violating the constitution by turning Yemen into his family enterprise. Saleh has ordered Sadeq's arrest but the tribal chief remains defiant. Last week he called Saleh a "liar" and said the President would leave the country "barefoot."
coach factory outletIs the federal government reading your e-mail? That may sound outrageous, but it may well be perfectly legal. The Constitution protects your home, your car, and your body from unreasonable searches. But the courts have been much less clear about whether it protects your Gmail or Yahoo! Mail account. So while the courts continue to deliberate, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont is now trying to give email new protections by upgrading the main federal Internet privacy law. E-mail is one of the biggest battlegrounds in privacy law and for good reason. Luxury Coach OutletPeople use it to communicate with their most intimate friends and relatives and they say many things they wouldn't want the government to know about, from talking about having cancer to insulting the President. Still, one of the revelations of the NSA spying scandal a few years back was that the government was intercepting a lot of private e-mail. (See how companies mine your data.) The e-mail privacy problem starts with the Fourth Amendment, which prevents unreasonable searches or more precisely, with how the Fourth Amendment has been interpreted. cheap hermes birkin The Fourth Amendment requires law enforcement in most cases to get a search warrant before they enter a home. To obtain a warrant, the government must have "probable cause" to believe a crime is being committed. The Fourth Amendment gives similar protection to first-class mail sent through the postal service. Generally, the government needs a warrant to open it. The rules for listening in on phone calls are even tougher. To comply with the Fourth Amendment, the government generally needs a "super-warrant," with its own set of procedural safeguards. These strong constitutional protections for private communications fall apart, however, for e-mail. The courts have not definitively decided whether the Fourth Amendment requires the government to get a warrant before obtaining an individual's e-mails from their email provider and then reading them. nike sb shoesGovernment lawyers like to emphasize the ways in which e-mail could be seen as deserving of less privacy; some of the most popular e-mail programs, for example, such as Gmail or Hotmail, are held by a third party, and the law often gives less protection to information that we let third parties keep for us. Last December, the Cincinnati-based United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled that a warrant is required to search stored e-mail but that decision only applies in four Midwestern states. (Watch "10 Simple Gmail Tricks You Might Not Know.") There is a second source of legal protection for e-mail privacy: the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. But its protections are limited. ECPA requires government to get a warrant when it intercepts e-mail in transit, but once an e-mail lands in your inbox, the protections are weaker. The government does not have to get a warrant, for instance, to read e-mail you have stored for over 180 days. That is a huge loophole, since many people use their e-mail accounts as electronic filing cabinets.Coach Shoes The federal government has also taken the position that once you open an e-mail it loses its protection, and it does not need a warrant to read it.
coach factory outletTalking to its enemies is not something that has ever come easily to America, a
country that believes in good and evil, black and white, with few shades of gray. Nevertheless, thats the way most wars end. And as President Obama has at
last acknowledged, its the way the 10-year war in Afghanistan must and should end.
Think back to an even bloodier conflict in another faraway land. In early 1968 the U.S. Army and Marines won a famous victory at great cost against an
insurgent armys mass assault. But the dean of American television journalists, Walter Cronkite, wasnt fooled by the defeat of the Tet Offensive. Touring
South Vietnam that February, he soon concluded that, contrary to U.S. generals optimistic predictions, the best military outcome America could hope for was
a bloody stalemate. replica coach handbagsOn Feb. 27, 1968, he went on the CBS Evening News and told the
American people that the only rational way out will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who have lived up to their pledge to defend
democracy, and did the best they could. His wise words caused a political earthquake. Within a few weeks, President Johnson had decided not to run for
reelection and had launched what became the Paris peace process.
Americas troops in Afghanistan have done the best they can. But despite their many tactical and local victories, they cannot by themselves defeat an
insurgent force whose chief aim is to expel foreign forces from its home country. The political settlement America and its allies have been struggling to
uphold is unsustainable unless and until the forces of conservative religious nationalism as represented by the Taliban are somehow dealt into the game. hermes birkin The truth is that when the West helped the northern Afghan warlords drive the Taliban from
power, we did not defeat the Taliban. Instead, we merely pushed them backeast and south and underground.
Worse, the peace that was then brokered, at the December 2001 Bonn conference and afterward, was a victors peace. nike sb shoesThe Taliban were not dealt into the agreement. And so they came creeping back, tentatively at first,
but now in full and violent spate. The West has unwittingly become involved in a multiplayer, multidimensional, multidecade conflict, a struggle between
Islam and secularism, conservatism and modernism, communism and capitalism, town and country, the Pashtun and their ethnic rivals, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, and
Turkmen.
With the death of Osama bin Laden, the Obama administration has at last been freed to acknowledge that there will be no military solution. What is needed, as
the president told the BBC on the eve of last weeks visit to London, is a new political settlement for Afghanistan. It was a tacit acceptance of what
Americas greatest contemporary diplomatmy late friend, colleague, and sparring partner Richard Holbrookeoften said: we are attacking the wrong enemy in
Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, in dozens of other places in the Middle East, and even in some of the great cities of the West. However much we may dislike the
Talibans social agenda, they are not global jihadists. Their only real quarrel with the West is the presence of our forces in their homeland.
At memorial for tornado victims, Joplin vows to heal, rebuild
Coach OutletThose who have survived a devastating tornado in Joplin, Missouri, should do their utmost to live up to the example set by those who died while helping others escape the storm, President Barack Obama said Sunday at a memorial service for the victims. Obama spoke about two of the heroes from the twister, which barreled into Joplin packing 200-mph winds a week ago Sunday. One of them, Dean Wells, directed his co-workers and customers at Home Depot to safety, returning again and again for more people until a wall of the store fell on top of him, the president said. And Christopher Lucas, 26, a manager at a Pizza Hut, herded employees and customers into a walk-in freezer, finding a bungee cord to hold the door shut from the inside and wrapping the other end around his arm. coach outletLucas held on as long as he could, Obama told the crowd Sunday, "until he was pulled away by the incredible force of the storm. He died saving more than a dozen people in that freezer. Faith comes to the forefront on Sunday in Joplin "There are heroes around us all the time," the president said. "And so, in the wake of this tragedy, let us live up to their example, to make each day count, to live with a sense of mutual regard, to live with that same compassion that they demonstrated in their final hours. cheap hermes birkin We are called by them to do everything we can to be worthy of this chance we've been given to carry on." The tornado swept a 13-mile path, the National Weather Service said Sunday, raising its earlier estimate of six miles. It destroyed neighborhoods, stripped the bark from trees, reduced homes in its path to unrecognizable rubble and killed more people than any other U.S. tornado since modern recordkeeping began in 1950. Early Sunday morning, Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr told CNN the death toll was 142. State officials have released the names of 87 victims. Authorities have 146 sets of human remains, Andrea Spillars, deputy director of the Missouri Department of Public Safety, said Sunday. nike dunk shoesSome of the remains may belong to the same person, she said, cautioning the figure should not be considered a death toll at this point. "It seems inconceivable that just one week ago, the people of Joplin were going about their daily lives, doing the ordinary things that people do on a Sunday evening -- cooking dinner, watching TV, walking the dog, attending their sons' and daughters' graduation," said Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, who spoke before Obama at the memorial service. "This tragedy has changed us forever," Nixon said. "This community will never be the same. We will never be the same ... but those we love, those we lost, are safe with God and safe in our hearts. And in our hearts the joy they gave us lives on and nothing can take that from us. We can and we will heal ... by God's grace, we will restore this community and by God's grace we will renew our souls." Coach Leather CollectionsEarlier, the Rev. Aaron Brown told those present, "I think God is saying to you right now, death doesn't get the last word. Death doesn't win ... Life wins."
Coach SunglassesWisconsin's law taking away nearly all collective bargaining rights from
most public workers was struck down Thursday by a circuit court judge but the ruling will not be the final say in the union fight that brought tens of
thousands of protesters to the Capitol earlier this year.
The state Supreme Court has scheduled arguments for June 6 to decide whether it will take the case. Republicans who control the Legislature also could pass
the law a second time to avoid the open meeting violations that led to the judge's voiding the law Thursday. (See TIME's photoessay: ("Showdown in Wisconsin")
Gov. Scott Walker pushed for the law as a way to help balance the state budget that was projected to be $3.6 billion short when he introduced the proposal in
February. coach handbags outlet His spokesman, Cullen Werwie, said the governor would have no comment on
the ruling.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and his brother, Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, said in statements they believe the Supreme Court will
rule in their favor. "This overdue reform is still a critical part of balancing Wisconsin's budget," Scott Fitzgerald said.
Wisconsin Department of Justice executive assistant Steve Means said the ruling was disappointing and that he was confident the Supreme Court would overturn
the decision. The Justice Department argued that the lower court judge had no authority to block enactment of a bill passed by the Legislature.
Ismael Ozanne, the Dane County district attorney who argued for striking down the law, did not immediately return a message.
While Walker and Republican legislators have said they legally passed the bill, they say they would pass it again if necessary to have it take effect when
Walker's two-year budget begins July 1.
Still, the judge's ruling is a victory, said Marty Beil, executive director of the state's largest public employee union. hermes birkin"It tells legislators 'You can't be arrogant,'" Beil said. "You have to do it in the light of
day. You can't take stuff away from people in a backroom deal."
If the Legislature legally passes the bill, Beil said more legal challenges attacking its constitutionality will be filed.
Mary Bell, president of the state's largest teachers' union, said she hoped the judge's ruling would lead to lawmakers reconsidering passing the law again.
"It is not in the best interest of students, schools or Wisconsin's future to take the voices of educators out of our classrooms," Bell said in a statement.
"We've seen how this issue has polarized our state."
The last time the Legislature took up the issue, tens of thousands of protesters including many teachers descended on Madison in a vain attempt to persuade
lawmakers to reject Walker's proposal. Nike outlet The protests, which grew to as large as 85,000 people, lasted
for weeks and made Wisconsin the center of a national debate on union rights. Meanwhile, all 14 Democratic senators fled to Illinois to prevent a 20-member
quorum to pass the bill. The Senate then called a special committee meeting with roughly two hours' notice so it could amend the bill to take out spending
items that required a higher quorum to be present.
Once amended, the Senate passed the bill without the Democrats present and the Assembly followed suit the next day. The Assembly had previously passed the
more expansive version of the bill following a 61-hour filibuster by Democrats. Walker signed the stripped-down version into law on March 11.
On Thursday, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi ruled that Republican legislators violated Wisconsin's open meetings law by calling the meeting at such
short notice.
She noted the open meetings law typically calls for 24-hours' notice or, in cases with just cause, two hours. Sumi said nothing justified less than 24 hours
for the special committee and declared the law void. Coach BeltsShe had already put the law
Sarah Palinâs âLearningâ Tour: A Revolutionary Road Trip?
Coach OutletAt the annual Rolling Thunder event in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, Sarah Palin will kick off a
week-long tour of U.S. historical sites. She will be accompanied by her husband Todd and daughter Piper. The tour will originate in Washington, D.C., and
will proceed north up the east coast, reads a statement from her PAC. More information will follow. Palin has no scheduled speeches or rallies, though there may be some events shes already been invited to along the way that she will participate in,
according to Tim Crawford, her PAC treasurer. Luxury Coach OutletIts a learning tour, Crawford says,
a tour of getting back to places that were key to the founding of this nation. There are a number of places from revolutionary war on that are significant
to our nations history in the northeast.
The tour, combined with a forthcoming independently produced film about her tenure as Alaskas governor, is sure to drum up speculation that Palin is
planning to run for President, something that would radically shakeup the current field of Republican contenders. She has always said that she would be an
unconventional candidate and the newly announced tour is certainly unconventional.hermes birkin One can
only imagine the mob scene when the bus, emblazoned with Join the Fundamental Restoration of America, pulls up to Gettysburg with hundreds of reporters
in tow.
Crawford would not confirm any of stops aside from Rolling Thunder. But north of Washington, there are some very obvious sites of historical significance. A
few possibilities: Antietam in Maryland, Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, the site where Washington crossed the Delaware River, the Liberty Bell and Constitution
Hall in Philadelphia, the Boston Tea Party and perhaps most important politically Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where Paul Revere delivered his warning of
the coming British invasion. Nike outlet Well soon know whether Palins trip is also an indication of major
DVDs in the 'Disney Vault': B.S. Manipulative Marketing at its Best (Worst?)
Coach OutletEvery now and again, Disney pulls movies out of the marketplace and places them out of consumer reach in the vaunted "Disney Vault." On the surface, this makes no sense: Why would a company, which obviously makes money by selling products, make it impossible for customers to buy the products? But what this piece of marketing engineering really does is cook up instant consumer demand, giving Disney fans a compelling reason to buyand buy right nowthat otherwise wouldn't exist. Eric Felten, in the WSJ, writes about the "scarcely scarce scarcity" created by Disney's marketeers, explaining that "the dreaded vault isn't so much about creating excitement as it is about creating fear."replica coach outlet The idea is that fans of movies like "Snow White" and "Fantasia," which both went into the vault in Aprilbut which you can borrow from Netflix, the local library, or, chances are, every one of your neighbors with kidswill be more likely to buy these movies if they're scared a time will come when (God forbid) they cannot buy these movies. At least until the new-new, freshly digitally remastered, freshly repriced edition comes out, of course. Felten aptly compares Disney's unpredictable DVD removal practices to experiments conducted on lab rats: cheap hermes birkinThe old behaviorists found that if a lab rat knew it would get a pellet every time it hit the lever, the rat would take his time, collecting his food only when he wanted it. But if the payoff was randomized and the rat didn't know which hit of the lever would deliver, the poor, anxious lab animal could be counted on to keep up a steady tattoo. cheap nike shoes storeHow ironic: Mickey Mouse treating us all like easily manipulated rats.
Coach OutletWith a title like L'Amour Fou, Pierre Thoretton's documentary about fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his life partner Pierre Berge promises a wild ride, a story of mad love. They had a relationship that endured throughout 50 years of glamorous living, business triumphs and failures, infidelities and Saint Laurent's drug and alcohol abuse as well as his chronic, often crippling depression. Arrows first flew, Berge tells us, at a fashion dinner in 1958; they soon moved in together, sharing homes until 1976, at which point a worn-out Berge retreated to a hotel just down the street. But they remained a couple in an emotional sense and married in a civil ceremony shortly before Saint Laurent's death in 2008. It was Berge who closed Saint Laurent's eyes for the last time. In short, there was plenty of mad and crazy love between them, but this melancholy documentary (in limited release) represents their partnership as a sort of still life: a thing quieted first by aging and then by absence. Whereas Italian fashion icon Valentino was larger than life in The Last Emperor, Matt Tyrnauer's jazzy 2009 documentary, Saint Laurent in L'Amour Fou is mostly a rather sweet and anguished ghost. Luxury Coach Outlet There are tantalizing glimpses of him at 21, he drolly tells an interviewer that he's "not unhappy" with his first collection but it doesn't feel like a full portrait. (This is the third Yves Saint Laurent documentary; two from 2002 concentrated on his career.) Thoretton focuses on the literal and figurative dismantling of the life Saint Laurent shared with Berge: an auction of their joint possessions. The central image that emerges is of Berge, who, having lived in the shadow of the fashion giant for five decades, steps out of it and walks sadly but resolutely away. (See a TIME video on Yves Saint Laurent's art collection.) hermes birkinWhile there is never any doubt about their bond, the mad love of Thoretton's title could also refer to the constant, fevered acquisition and adoration of beautiful objects. Whether in Marrakech, Morocco, on the Left Bank or in the French countryside, their homes were crammed with paintings, sculptures and vases. Busy as he was turning out two collections a year, Saint Laurent was also busy decorating: filling up spaces, creating moods within places (their country home paid homage to Marcel Proust, with rooms named for characters from Remembrance of Things Past). And he spent a lot of time languishing in them, Berge says, too depressed to entertain any of his glamorous friends (Andy Warhol, Catherine Deneuve and Mick Jagger all appear in archival footage, and Thoretton interviewed Saint Laurent's twin muses, Loulou de la Falaise and Betty Catroux). nike dunk shoesAs the camera pans over a tasteful library in Saint Laurent's Paris apartment, with Warhol's portraits of Saint Laurent peeking down from a high shelf, Berge says the designer was particularly fond of this room. "It offered him a little more privacy, away from all the masterpieces we owned," he explains. It's a real "Say what?" moment; while everyone knows money can't buy happiness, the notion that Saint Laurent, lover of beauty, needed a refuge from his more monumental possessions is startling. In his 2002 retirement speech, much of which is shown here in fuzzy black and white, Saint Laurent spoke of needing "aesthetic phantoms to live," of chasing, seeking and tracking them down but he did not mention needing rooms in which to hide from them. L'Amour Fou makes you contemplate your own clutter with an eye to a yard sale. Whether it's a Brancusi sculpture looming over the living room or a stereo that works properly only half the time, ultimately it's all just stuff, right? When Thoretton pans over Saint Laurent's former bedroom or living room, tellingly, it's dull and flat, not nearly as interesting as vintage shots of angular Saint Laurent posing among objects. Coach Totes Bags The point he's making is clear, but he hammers it home with a few too many shots of crowded-but-empty rooms.
Volcanic Deja Vu? One Year Later, Iceland Faces Another Eruption
Coach OutletBetter learn how to pronounce this name: Grimsvotn. It could be the cause of much travel grief if the eruption continues. If Eyjafjallajokull were any example, Iceland's volcanoes have the power to disrupt the world travel scene. And yesterday, it appears the tiny nation's hidden volcanoes are at it again. This time, the culprit was Iceland's biggest and most active volcano, Grimsvotn. (PHOTOS: The eerie beauty of Iceland's volcanoes) The eruption began Saturday, shooting a plume of ash more than 12 miles into the sky. Scientists noted that it was Grimsvotn's largest eruption in more than 100 years. Luxury Coach Outlet And as its name notes (in English, at least), the fallout could be grim indeed. "(It was) much bigger and more intensive than Eyjafjallajokull," University of Iceland geophysicist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson told the AP. However, a combination of factors could help mitigate this eruption as compared to the April 2010 blast at Eyjafjallajokull, which impacted travel plans for 10 million people worldwide. Gudmundsson says the ash is coarser than last year's, meaning it will dissipate and fall to the ground faster, leading to clearer skies quicker. hermes birkin He also noted the winds were not as strong as they were last April, so the ash is less likely to be blown for miles. Nonetheless, Iceland's main international airport, Keflavik, was shut down this morning amid fears that the ash might damage jets' engines. The halt grounded 11 airplanes in Iceland, affecting about 2,000 passengers. Nike outlet Authorities have set up a no-fly for 120 nautical miles in all directions of the eruption. Scientists are optimistic that the worst will be over in two or three days.
Coach SunglassesLos Angeles Lakers fans must have hoped that their team's implosio in the 2011 NBA playoffs during coach Phil Jackson's likely last season was the end of this year's Staples Center soap opera. As it turns out, that was wishful thinking. Now, suddenly, the Lakers' faithful are witness to a more bizarre melodrama. Their legendary Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has in recent days taken to Twitter and other media outlets to express his genuine displeasure that the Lakers have not yet erected a statue in his honor outside the Staples Center, where Magic Johnson, Jerry West and longtime Lakers announcer Chick Hearn are all bronzed, along with Wayne Gretzky and Oscar De La Hoya. (See TIME's Q&A with Abdul-Jabbar.) Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA's all-time leading scorer, has never been a charmer, and he would be the first to admit it. But his griping about the statue has already raised lots of eyebrows. Luxury Coach Outlet"I don't understand it," Abdul-Jabbar told the Sporting News regarding the statue issue. "It's either an oversight or they're taking me for granted. I'm not going to try to read people's minds, but it doesn't make me happy. It's definitely a slight." In a statement, Abdul-Jabbar later said, "I am highly offended by the total lack of acknowledgment of my contribution to Laker success. I guess being the linchpin for five world-championship teams is not considered significant enough in terms of being part of Laker history." Among the slights, says Abdul-Jabbar: he was forced to take a pay cut as a special assistant coach in 2009 while Jackson earned $12 million per year (a Lakers spokesman has said Abdul-Jabbar's responsibilities were reduced and that his salary was adjusted to reflect that). Former teammate Magic Johnson has been fully embraced by the Lakers.cheap hermes birkin He even became part owner, though he sold his share last year. Meanwhile, Abdul-Jabbar says he feels like an outsider. "They just treated me like I was some stranger," he tells TIME. On the flight back from Orlando after the Lakers won the 2009 NBA Finals, Jabbar, who is 7 ft. 2 in., says the team made him coil up in a small seat while there were roomier seats available in the area where players and other coaches were lounging. Many observers are not going to have much sympathy for Abdul-Jabbar, who can seem like yet another retired star clinging to glory days and starving for recognition while the world moves on without him. The Lakers have indicated that Abdul-Jabbar is next in line for a statue, though he says he heard that promise two years ago. But perhaps we shouldn't be so quick to kick the man. "It's not like I want a statue and I'm jumping up and down about that," says Abdul-Jabbar. "It's an accumulation of things. nike dunk shoesThe principle of not being recognized is something that can really burn." (See the top 10 U.S. sports strikes and lockouts.) In his six years as a special assistant coach, Abdul-Jabbar has received some credit for helping Lakers center Andrew Bynum develop into a low-post threat. And Abdul-Jabbar, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 2009 it's in remission isn't some ex-jock who just sits around at card shows, trying to profit solely from his name. He's an established cultural figure, whose experiences encountering racism and subsequent conversion to Islam got people talking about race and religion.Coach Belts He has written six books, including several on African-American history, and has just produced a thoughtful documentary now available on Netflix, On the Shoulders of Giants, which tells the story of the Harlem Rens, a successful barnstorming all-black team from the 1930s. (And who could forget his immortal cameo as pilot Roger Murdoch in Airplane!? "Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes." )
Coach SunglassesIt is Wall Street's job to throw money at new companies, a Wall Street economist explained to me during the dotcom boom of a decade ago, when the valuations of IPOs were being questioned. We can report today that the Street, despite the dotcom bust and the real estate bust and the financial meltdown, has not only retained its moneychucking prowess but amped it, if LinkedIn is any measure. The social network for the professional set had already marked up its IPO to $45, the top end of the range, before it opened for trading today. The stock rocketed about 125% before your second cup of coffee as investors once again rushed the doors to try to buy what may or may not be the next great internet company. It's tempting to lump LinkedIn with those featured dotbombs of an era ago, Pets.com being the most famous. But remember, most of those outfits were profitless promises of future growth. LinkedIn has a solid track record. Sales have doubled every year. It has 100 million registered members. And good golly, it actually earned money in a couple of quarters. coach handbags outletBut that means the company trades at a p/e north of crazy, upwards of 1,000. Google's p/e, by comparison, is closer to 21. Some things did remain the same. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, who became a dotcom jillionaire, said the requisite, I don't care about the stock price the way a basketball player talks about it was a team effort after he scores 50 points. hermes birkin C'mon, Jeff, how about a little whoopee, or even, Are those people nuts or what? That's the question, of course: just how much are the social networking companies that are due to hit the market, including Groupon, ultimately worth? Are we headed for Dotcom II? In important ways the world is different now. A decade ago, everyone was still trying to figure out where this new technology called the Internet would take us. Although it was clear that a huge disintermediation was taking place, particularly in retailing, the speed of consumer adaptation was relatively slow.nike sb shoes We were wary, for instance, of making credit card purchases. Nobody had a smart phone. Amazon struggled mightily. Pets.com and Webvanan early internet grocery delivery firmflamed out. Today, of course, there are plenty of grocery and pet sites operating. Social networking sites didn't have to wait for Internet penetration to reach a critical mass. We all have smart phones. So investors don't have to guess as much as to whether these firms will catch on and thrive. Key metrics registered users and page viewscan be known by the minute. So investors have a much deeper knowledge about web companies today. Coach- Poppy CollectionsIt's arguably more rational that they would want to get a piece of the action. What never changes is the herd mentality. Whether that's in hula hoops or real estate or planking or social network stocks, everyone wants to be in on the hot item. That's why we end up throwing too much money at some many things, just like Wall Street always does.
No. 1 with a Bullet: 'L.A. Noire' Lifts Parent Company's Stock Price
Coach JewelryTake a development cycle of six years, ambitious and expensive MotionScan technology and shared responsibilities between Rockstar and Team Bondi. What do you get? One gigantic, city-sized gamble, in the form of L.A. Noire. But if the share price of Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive is any indication, it's a gamble that's paying off. (More on TIME.com: Arresting Development: 'L.A. Noire' Review) Observers who followed the development of Rockstar's latest gamemyself includedknew that the interactive detective game presented a huge risk for the publisher and parent company. nike sb shoesRadically different game design than that seen in the Grand Theft Auto games and the new body language technology focused on making deduction possible meant that L.A. Noire was ripe for backlash. But reviews seem positive so far, with the game netting an average score of 90 on Metacritic. The positive reception apparently caused a jump in Take-Two's stock price, which started yesterday at $15.93/share and ended the day at $16.90/share. It hit a high of $17.24 yesterday, which is the highest it's been in the last six months. As someone who reviews games, it always strikes me as weird that aggregators like Metacritic hold sway over the financial fortunes of video game companies. hermes birkin bagThe last few months have shown negative stock price repercussions for Nintendo and THQ in the wake of the 3DS and Homefront launches, respectively. Over and over, you hear how compensation and shareholder sentiment swing in accordance with how well a game performs in the critical space. With the success of L.A. Noire, here's hoping that that Rockstarand other game-making entitieskeep taking creative risks. The results can be rewarding creativelyand financially, too.
Coach BootsEven in the best of times, Pakistans nuclear-weapons program warrants alarm. But these are perilous days. At a moment of unprecedented misgiving between Washington and Islamabad, new evidence suggests that Pakistans nuclear program is barreling ahead at a furious clip. According to new commercial-satellite imagery obtained exclusively by NEWSWEEK, Pakistan is aggressively accelerating construction at the Khushab nuclear site, about 140 miles south of Islamabad. The images, analysts say, prove Pakistan will soon have a fourth operational reactor, greatly expanding plutonium production for its nuclear-weapons program. The buildup is remarkable, says Paul Brannan of the Institute for Science and International Security. And that nobody in the U.S. or in the Pakistani government says anything about thisespecially in this day and ageis perplexing. Unlike Iran, which has yet to produce highly enriched uranium, or North Korea, which has produced plutonium but still lacks any real weapons capability, Pakistan is significantly ramping up its nuclear-weapons program. luxury coachEric Edelman, undersecretary of defense in the George W. Bush administration, puts it bluntly: Youre talking about Pakistan even potentially passing France at some point. Thats extraordinary. Pakistani officials say the buildup is a response to the threat from India, which is spending $50 billion over the next five years on its military. But to say its just an issue between just India and Pakistan is divorced from reality, says former senator Sam Nunn, who co-chairs the Nuclear Threat Initiative. The U.S. and Soviet Union went through 40 years of the Cold War and came out every time from dangerous situations with lessons learned. Pakistan and India have gone through some dangerous times, and they have learned some lessons. But not all of them. Today, deterrence has fundamentally changed. The whole globe has a stake in this. hermes birkin handbagsIts extremely dangerous. Its dangerous because Pakistan is also stockpiling fissile material, or bomb fuel. Since Islamabad can mine uranium on its own territory and has decades of enrichment know-howbeginning with the work of nuclear scientist A. Q. Khanthe potential for production is significant. Although the White House declined to comment, a senior U.S. congressional official who works on nuclear issues told NEWSWEEK that intelligence estimates suggest Pakistan has already developed enough fissile material to produce more than 100 warheads and manufacture between eight and 20 weapons a year. Theres no question, the official says, its the fastest-growing program in the world. What has leaders around the world especially worried is whats popularly known as loose nukesnuclear weapons or fissile material falling into the wrong hands. Theres no transparency in how the fissile material is handled or transported, says Mansoor Ijaz, who has played an active role in back-channel diplomacy between Islamabad and New Delhi. Coach Belts And the amountthey have significant quantitiesis whats so alarming.
coach factory outletWhen House Speaker John Boehner calls for trillions of dollars of spending cuts, the message is clear. Any deal to raise the federal debt ceiling must include significant savings in Social Security and Medicare benefits. Subsidizing the elderly is the biggest piece of federal spending (more than two-fifths of the total), but trimming benefits for well-off seniors isnt just budget arithmetic. Its also the right thing to do. I have been urging higher eligibility ages and more means-testing for Social Security and Medicare for so long that I forget that many Americans still accept the outdated and propagandistic notion that old age automatically impoverishes people. Asks one reader: Who are these well-off elderly you keep writing about? The suggestion is that they are figments of my imagination, invented to justify harsh cutbacks in Social Security and Medicare on the needy. Just the opposite. Nike outletWe see every day that many people in their 60s and older live comfortably and still would if they received a little less in Social Security and paid a little more for Medicare. The trouble is that whats intuitively obvious becomes lost in the political debate; its overwhelmed by selective and self-serving statistics that cast almost everyone over 65 as being on the edge of insolvency. The result: Government over-subsidizes the affluent elderly. It transfers resources from the struggling young to the secure old. To correct the stereotype, consult a government publication called Older Americans 2010, Key Indicators of Well-Being. It reminds us that Americans live longer and have gotten healthier. luxury coachIn 1930, life expectancy was 59.2 years at birth and 12.2 years at 65; in 2006, those figures were 77.7 and 18.5. Since 1981, death rates for heart disease and stroke have fallen by half for those 65 and over. In this population, about three-quarters rate their own health as good or excellent. hermes birkinMost older people are enjoying greater prosperity than any previous generation, the report says. Consider: l From 1959 to 2007, the proportion of the 65-plus population with incomes under the governments poverty line ($12,968 for a couple in 2009) dropped from 35.2 percent to 9.7 percent, which was half the poverty rate for children under 18 (18 percent). l The proportion of elderly living in the high income group defined as four times the poverty line, or almost $52,000 for a couple in 2009 rose from 18.4 percent in 1980 to 30.6 percent in 2007. l In 2007, the median net worth (that is, assets minus debts) of 65-plus households was $237,000, about twice the amount for households aged 45 to 54. Among 65-plus married couples, median net worth was $385,000. Coach BeltsIndeed, half the nations wealth is owned by people 55 and older (a third of the adult population), report Eugene Steuerle and Stephanie Rennane of the Urban Institute. The old feel more secure. The National Opinion Research Center regularly surveys Americans about their financial satisfaction. In 2010, 82 percent of those 65 and over said they were satisfied or more or less satisfied. For those under 65, the comparable figure was 66 percent.
Alaina Giordano, Mom with Stage 4 Cancer, Speaks Out About Losing Her Kids
nike dunk shoesDivorce is often nasty but once in a while, the details of a particular breakup grab ahold of the soul and won't let go. One such case involves Alaina Giordano, a mother of two who is battling Stage 4 breast cancer. On April 25 Giordano lost custody of her children, when a judge ruled that they would need to relocate from their Durham, N.C., to live with their father in Chicago by June 17 because, essentially, the judge said, a healthy dad is better than a sick mom. Giordano was stunned. She had expected an open-and-shut case. Quickly, an elementary-school friend leaped into action, slapping up a Facebook page that he hoped would spread the word and help Giordano attract a pro bono lawyer who could challenge Judge Nancy Gordon's ruling. She's seeking an altruistic attorney because Giordano doesn't earn an income she's a stay-at-home mom (SAHM, natch), the toughest of jobs a fact that was used against her in the custody battle, igniting a wave of support from fellow SAHMers. (More on TIME.com: Should a Mother Lose Custody of Her Kids Because She Has Cancer?) Concern over Giordano's health was also a primary issue in the custody battle.coach factory outlet Her cancer was diagnosed in 2007, about six months before she moved with her family to Durham so that her husband, Kane Snyder, could study for his M.B.A. at Duke University. The cancer has since metastasized to her bones, which is hardly a good thing. But her treatment regimen is keeping the disease at bay; she says it is not actively spreading. And it's anyone's guess how long she'll live. In the meantime, she says she's able to parent and, if her recent media schedule is any gauge, rival the stamina of a triathlete. On Wednesday, Giordano was in New York City for a publicity blitz. She awoke at 5 a.m. to arrive at the Today show set with her kids, 11-year-old Sofia and 5-year-old Bud. She did her interview; her kids met Matt Lauer. luxury coachAfterward, she knocked out another few interviews, including The Gayle King Show and CNN, where they ran into Michelle Obama's brother and Anderson Cooper. Then there was lunch with Giordano's cousin and dinner with the kids at the Hard Rock Cafe (the haunted Jekyll and Hyde Club having proved too spooky for Bud). They gallivanted through Central Park and finished the day in the audience of "The Addams Family," a Broadway musical. "I'm totally functional," says Giordano. (More on TIME.com: What We Can Learn from the Schwarzenegger-Shriver Split) As she waited with her kids for her return flight to North Carolina, Giordano spoke with Healthland about fighting for her life, but mostly for her children. (Kane Snyder was also asked to comment for this post, but he did not return emails or phone calls.) Healthland: How much do your children know about what's going on? Giordano: They know there was a court case and I had to tell them the judge said they have to move. I told them the night of the ruling. I was still in shock at that point. I tried to be matter-of-fact. cheap hermes birkinI did say I wanted them to stay with me, but the judge ruled otherwise. My daughter can be a bit stoic, like me, but when it was just me and her, she started screaming, crying. She didn't get out of bed, didn't want to leave the apartment. My son has been very anxious. He doesn't want to let me out of his sight. He sleeps with me. They know that when someone forces you to do something, that's not love. Healthland: What kind of relationship do your children have with their father? Giordano: He's their dad, and I do my best to be honest with them but also be protective of their relationship with him. They love their dad. When my son says, "Daddy hates you and you hate Daddy," I say, "I don't hate your dad, but I'm not happy with his behavior." Healthland: Does he visit frequently? Giordano: I can't really say how often. He came to visit for one night in February, one night in March, and the judge ordered [the kids] go there for spring break, so they did. There were about eight weeks in the fall when he didn't come to see them. Healthland: What did you do before your kids were born? Giordano: I worked as a paralegal in Philadelphia. Coach Earrings [Snyder] was a waiter. I took the LSAT but when I had kids I stayed home, and he was finishing his undergraduate degree and working. In Aug. 2005, he became a consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers so he was away a lot. ... I went on every [school] field trip. I was the room mother. My kids always came first. Healthland: It seems like there must be something else going on in addition to your illness to warrant a custody decision like this. There are allegations of cheating and abuse. What's going on there? Giordano: I admitted my cheating. He won't admit his. In North Carolina, if there is an affair you don't get alimony so he has really gone after me on that. ... It's always been an abusive relationship. There is documentation. I had a witness testify that she saw him physically assault me in front of my son. Coach Jewelry The judge heard that, then wrote there was no domestic violence that qualified under whatever statute it was.
